Friday, September 14, 2007

36 Human-Competitive Results Produced by Genetic Programming

36 Human-Competitive Results Produced by Genetic Programming

There are now 36 instances where genetic programming has produced a human-competitive result. Click here for the 8 criteria defining “human-competitive” These human-competitive results include 15 instances where genetic programming has created an entity that either infringes or duplicates the functionality of a previously patented 20th-century invention, 6 instances where genetic programming has done the same with respect to a 21st-centry invention, and 2 instances where genetic programming has created a patentable new invention. These human-competitive results come from the fields of computational molecular biology, cellular automata, sorting networks, and the synthesis of the design of both the topology and component sizing for complex structures, such as analog electrical circuits, controllers, and antenna.

The goal of getting computers to automatically solve problems is central to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the broad area encompassed by what Turing called “machine intelligence” (Turing 1948, 1950). The goal is to get a computer to do what needs to be done, without telling it how to do it. The criterion for success was aptly stated by machine learning pioneer Arthur Samuel in his 1983 talk entitled “AI: Where It Has Been and Where It Is Going.”

“[T]he aim [is] ¼ to get machines to exhibit behavior, which if done by humans, would be assumed to involve the use of intelligence.”

Samuel’s criterion reflects the common goal articulated by the pioneers of the 1950s in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Indeed, getting machines to produce human-like results is the reason for the existence of the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Genetic programming addresses this challenge by providing a method for automatically creating a working computer program from a high-level problem statement of the problem.

The table below lists 36 human-competitive instances (of which we are aware) where genetic programming has produced human-competitive results. Each entry in the table is accompanied by the criteria that establish the basis for the claim of human-competitiveness. Click here for the 8 criteria defining “human-competitive” Twenty-three of the instances in the table below involve patents (as indicated by an “A” in column 3). Eleven of the automatically created results infringe previously issued patents and 10 duplicate the functionality of previously patented inventions in a non-infringing way. The 29th through 34th entries in the table below relate to patents for analog circuits that were issued after January 1, 2000. Referring to the table, 21 of the results relate to previously patented inventions, thus making genetic programming an automated invention machine.